Human spaceflight has been around for many years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,346 discloses a manned capsule which can be lifted into orbit by a launching motor. The capsule can subsequently return to Earth using a parachute system. Another example is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,688 which discloses a booster vehicle to inject an orbiter into orbit. Both the booster vehicle and the orbiter are provided with crew compartments.
Human spaceflight has until recently been the exclusive domain of governmental or intern-governmental space agencies. However, at the end of the 1990's the phenomenon of space tourism emerged.
Until the day of today, about a handful of wealthy individuals have paid for a flight with a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) and a subsequent stay in the ISS in orbit. These first “space tourists” paid in excess of 20 million US dollars for their trip. The fact that people are willing to pay large sums of money shows that there is a demand for space tourism. It is obvious however, that the demand for space tourism will be very small at these steep prices. Apart from the high prices, another factor that might discourage potential space tourists is the long training period necessary before being allowed to fly. Space tourists may further suffer discomfort when experiencing prolonged weightlessness.
Recently, a number of start-up companies have started developing spacecraft suitable for sub-orbital flight, in the hope of offering a more affordable trip to “space” and developing a profitable space tourism industry. In such a sub-orbital flight, a spacecraft would take-off from Earth, ascend to an altitude of approx. 100 km and return to Earth. An advantage of the sub-orbital flight compared to the orbital flight is that passengers would not need a long training period before being able to board. These sub-orbital flights are however still projected to be very costly. For example, presently Virgin Galactic offers tickets starting at 200.000 US dollars. Furthermore, with available jet and rocket technology, it can be foreseen that the emissions from these vehicles will be potentially damaging to the environment in general and the ozone layer in particular.
There is therefore still a need to develop spacecraft or space vessels that have the potential of making space tourism more affordable. There is furthermore a need to make space tourism more comfortable and a more enjoyable experience. And there is also a need to make space tourism less contaminating.
Therefore, commercially offering “near-space” flights (to an altitude of approx. 30-40 km above Earth) with the aid of a gondola suspended from a balloon has been proposed [“The role of Balloons in the future development of Space Tourism”, J. Lopez-Urdiales, IAC-02-IAA.1.3.02, 53rd International Astronautical Congress, 10-19 Oct. 2002, Houston].
At such an altitude in the stratosphere (30-40 km), passengers will have a view of the curvature of the Earth, a bluish layer around the Earth (caused by Rayleigh scattering), a dark sky and the sun. After viewing the Earth from this altitude, the gondola may return to Earth using e.g. a parachute or parafoil-like structure. In this way, a very comfortable way of viewing the Earth is achieved. Compared to e.g. a stay in the ISS, this form of space tourism offers the promise of less contamination, and a cheaper and more comfortable trip. At the same time, this form of space tourism can provide the passengers with a very attractive viewing experience.
Similar balloon flights have been performed in a non-commercial manner in the past. U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,581 discloses a largely cylindrical gondola suspended from a balloon. The gondola offers a space for one passenger (scientist). U.S. Pat. No. 2,950,881 discloses a similar gondola, provided with two seats.
These prior art systems are hardly suitable for commercial flights: the space available for passengers is very small, the windows are very small (practically inevitable with the shape of the gondola), and although some shock absorbing structure has been provided to soften the landing, the trip will hardly be pleasant for passengers. In order to be able to commercially offer this kind of human stratospheric balloon flights, there is a need to provide a gondola (or cabin or other unit for hosting passengers) that is able to make such a flight more pleasant for passengers. There is furthermore a need to provide such a unit for hosting passengers that can comfortably descend to Earth from a certain altitude using a parafoil or parachute like structure. There is furthermore a need to provide such a unit that can make other (non-balloon) space-flight in orbit more pleasant. The present invention aims at resolving one or more of these needs and achieves this with a pod according to claim 1. A pod in its general sense is a detachable or self-contained unit on an aircraft, spacecraft, vehicle, or vessel, having a particular function (in the case of the present invention: hosting passengers and/or crew).